Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 207 - 208

 JAMES S. JENNINGS, of Wichita, first opened his eyes to the light in the great Miami Valley, in Greene County, Ohio, about 1839.  When five months old his parents conveyed him overland in a big wagon to the woods of Huntington County, Ind.  From Marion north the dense forest had to be penetrated by cutting out the underbrush with axes, thus making a track wide enough for wagons to pass.  This road passed along the old Indian trail over which the noble red man of the Pottawatomie tribe visited his neighbors the Miamis, of whom Mashingomashe was the chief.  Logan, chief of the Mingoes, was located with his tribe forty miles down the Wabash, where the city of Logansport now stands.  Here in the woods, among the savages and their dogs, young Jennings received his first ideas of real life.

      The first cap worn by little James S., a nice velvet tasseled affair, was bought of the Indians by his mother, who traded them $2 worth of maple sugar at eight cents per pound.  The "yaller" hound dogs of the Indians were the terror of young Jennings' life.  Every few days from one to 500 Indians would pass over the trail, sometimes camping out just across the road from his father's house.  When the tents were visited by the older children the young Indian boys amused themselves trying to see how near to their bare feet they could shoot their arrows without hitting them.  Thus, surrounded by Indians, the mosquitoes and the ague shakes of the Wabash Valley, our subject was permitted to grow to manhood. 

     When Mr. Jennings was about six years of age the Pottawatomies and Miamis were removed to Kansas.  The boy grew up hearty, robust and fleet-footed, and prided himself on his ability to outrun, outjump and outlift anyone of his age in the entire neighborhood.  At a single bound he would jump over anything that was not above his eyes.  He received his primary schooling in the stereotyped log cabin, where the pupils sat on hard slab benches, in which augur holes were bored and wooden pins inserted for legs.  The desks were made of similar slabs pinned up against the wall with wooden fastenings.  The windows were cut from between the logs with axes, and 8 x 10 glass inserted in long rows.  Thus, with backs to the teacher, it gave the latter every advantage over the pupil.  One of these pedagogues, known among the children as "old Q," used to cut a "sprig" from the forest about twelve to fifteen feet long, and whip the scholars in tiers.  A single stroke of this rod would cause a wail to go up from one end to the other of a long bench, and in consequence thereof many tears were shed.  One day satisfied young Jennings for that term, and probably he is about the only one living to tell the tale.

      Our hero, however, pursued his studies at home, and acquired equal learning with his elder brothers and sisters, four of whom became teachers.  In after life he attended school at the Union Christian College of Merom, Ind., where he, with twenty others, was graduated after the space of six weeks, and then went into the army as 100-days men.  This was near the close of the war, the rebels surrendering soon after the 100-days boys got in their work.  In this service Jennings was Corporal of the Guard most of the time, sometimes acting as Sergeant and once Orderly for the company, when he demanded vinegar and molasses in addition to the coffee, beans and hardtack, which they had been receiving for weeks past.  The regiment was sent home, and mustered out of service at Indianapolis just before Hood's raid on Nashville.

      After spending another year on the farm, failing health caused Mr. Jennings to seek a different occupation.  Going to Marion, Ind., in the fall of 1866, he soon afterward purchased a half interest in the only paper published there at that time.  As editor of that paper, boy though he was, he took a firm stand against granting license to saloons, and in three months thereafter was gratified to learn that not a single additional license was granted from that time until after he had lost his printing-office by fire, in January, 1876.

      In July, 1867, occurred the marriage of James S. Jennings to Miss Lizzie, daughter of Nathan and Elizabeth (Ranck) Sayler, and cousin of Hon. B. Sayler, of Huntington, present District Judge, and Hon. Milton Sayler, formerly member of Congress from Cincinnati.  Mrs. Jennings was born in 1848, in Preble County, Ohio, and by her marriage with our subject became the mother of three children, two only of whom are living, a son and daughter-Roscoe Paul and Elva Linda.  In 1877 our subject came with his family to this State, stopping at Emporia the first eight months.  Soon after their arrival there their youngest daughter, Sylvia Miasy, died of that dread disease diphtheria, then prevailing in portions of the State.  In August, 1878, they removed to Belle Plaine, Summer County, where Mr. Jennings published the National Monitor eight months.  This paper was removed to Wichita in March, 1879, since which time Mr. Jennings has edited the Arkansas Valley Sunshine and the present Wichita New Republic.  In 1880 the former paper was suspended on account of the illness of Mrs. Jennings, who, after lingering five months, died on the 1st of July, 1881, the day preceding the assassination of President Garfield.

      The health of Mr. Jennings also at this time was such that he did not think it wise to resume the newspaper business until he and his brother began the publication of the Republic, in February, 1883.  In June of the same year his only remaining brother, Milton, was taken ill, returned to Indiana, and died the month following.  Since that time James S. Jennings has been principally alone in the management and editorial control of the Republic.  Aside from newspaper work he has also prepared the manuscript for two books, one of poems and one of prose.  Some of his poems have appeared in the Waverly Magazine and other Eastern periodicals.  He is at present taking steps to have his writings published in full in book form.

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